Newman Chides Rabbis Who Are Anti-zionists

June 20, 1934

“The Reform Rabbis of the United States see nothing but the darkness in which they have buried their heads,” Rabbi Louis I. Newman, of Temple Rodeph Sholom, said in an address at a meeting of the Richmond Hill Zionist District.

Speaking of the relationship between Zionism and Reform Judaism, Rabbi Newman said:

“Pious resolutions of approval of the practical work being done in Palestine may be passed, but their implications do not reach deeply into the minds of Reform Rabbis of their congregants.

“Until the Zionist Rabbis can muster enough votes on the floor of Conferences when decisive votes are taken, so long will anti-Zionist pronouncements be made at Rabbinical conferences and negative judgments on the constructive movements and organizations of Jewish life be issued to the press.

“Palestine marches forward with amazing speed to amazing prosperity, but ostrich-like, the Reform Rabbis are in the dark.”

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